Thomas Alva Edison set up his first small laboratory in Newark, New Jersey in 1871, where he invented devices to greatly improve the speed
and efficiency of the telegraph. He later moved to Menlo Park, NJ, where he built a research and development laboratory, which would
later serve as a model for such modern facilities as Bell Laboratories. It was here that Edison invented the first successful
incandescent electric light for both commercial and residential usage. After moving to his third laboratory in West Orange, NJ, in 1887,
Edison began to work on the phonograph, eventually creating the first motion picture. By the time of his death, Edison had earned
patents for more than a thousand inventions. Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1973, Edison is a cultural icon
and symbol of American ingenuity. For more information, please see
http://www.nps.gov/edis/index.htm.

One of New Jersey's most influential and controversial figures of the early 20th century is singer, actor, civil rights activist, scholar,
athlete and author, Paul Robeson. One of the best known and most widely respected black Americans of the 1930s and 40s, Robeson, who
was born and raised in Princeton, NJ, was an internationally-acclaimed stage actor, who starred in such memorable leading roles as
Othello (1930 and 1943), The Emperor Jones (1933) and Toussaint L'Ouverture (1936). Robeson, a graduate of Rutgers College (now
University) was an early staunch supporter of many controversial causes, including socialism, civil rights, and colonial liberation.
In 1998, The New Jersey Historical Society showed the unprecedented exhibition Paul Robeson: Bearer of a Culture, which marked the
100th birthday of the pivotal, but forgotten American cultural figure from New Jersey. This traveling exhibition, comprised of rare
photographs, manuscripts, diaries, sculpture, memorabilia, and audio recordings of speeches and songs, was created by the Paul Robeson
Foundation.

Abbie Greiger was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1810. She married a well-known Newark jeweler Clement Eugene Chevallier in 1833, and the
prominent couple ranked among the elite of Newark society during the early 19th Century. Mrs. Chevallier died in 1846 at the age of
36. This portrait, which was donated to The New Jersey Historical Society by Julia C. Alling in 1936, was painted around 1835. Attributed
to the painter Oliver T. Eddy, it is an oil painting on wood, one of about 240 pieces of fine art in the museum collection of the
Historical Society. Our collection consists of many notable figures of New Jersey's past, including Aaron Burr by artist Gilbert
Stuart and Theodore Frelinghuysen (Henry Clay's vice-presidential candidate in 1844) by Rembrandt Peale. Additional portraits include
other works by Peale, portraits by Asher B. Durand (founder of the Hudson River School) and Oliver Tarbell (a Newark portraitist whose
works are also at the Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Gladys PerezGladys Perez was featured in the exhibition Moving Through Memory: Caribbean Folk Arts in New Jersey, which was shown from April
26, 1995 to May 5, 1996. Photographed by Tony Velez in 1994, Gladys Perez combined different adornments to create her own unique look
and, in many cases, works of art. In this photograph, some of Perez' elaborate assemblages are seen along her jacket collar and the
brim of her hat. Many of the items were gifts for family and friends in her homeland, Cuba. As exhibition curator Isabel Nazario
writes in the catalogue that accompanied the exhibition, people like Perez "bring an extraordinary sense of vitality to our
understanding of material culture and folk art . . . through objects traditionally regarded as craft and those typically not so viewed,
artists across New Jersey are both preserving and transforming the flavor and sensibility of island life." This exhibition focused on
the folk art of five Caribbean cultures and their impact on the changing landscape of New Jersey's cities and suburbs. Developed in
collaboration with the Center for Latino Arts and Culture, Rutgers University, New Brunswick and traveled to Stedman Gallery, Rutgers
University, Camden.